Chapter 20: Rosita

Jack and Tina rested for several hours after they cleaned up, and then began making love again. Jack didn’t take her ass again, having accomplished his main task of subduing her spirit and breaking her to his control. They left the hotel around six the next morning, and he drove her home. Tina invited him inside, and when Kirsten woke up and came down the hallway to investigate what woke her, she found her mother kneeling on the couch, with Jack behind her, holding her dress up while doing her doggie style. She stared while they finished, then Jack pulled out, zipped up his pants, and kissed the pair of them before leaving. Tina headed to her bedroom. She needed some sleep and told Kirsten to wake her in time for her to call in sick.

Jack was very thankful that his new powers lowered the need for sleep. He and Tina had screwed each other ragged at the Hilton, and he knew that pre-Crystal, he would have collapsed of exhaustion at some point. Instead he made it to the office on time and was whistling softly as he entered the building. Teresa greeted him as he came in, and slyly asked, “Did you have a good time, Lord?”

“I had a very good time, Teresa.”

“It sounds like it. Tina called in saying she was feeling under the weather, but I think her real disease is sexual exhaustion! It sounds like the same symptoms to me.”

Jack laughed at that. “Who knows? You’d better be careful. It might be catching. You might end up calling in sick tomorrow morning yourself.”

“I certainly hope so!”

Jack laughed again and headed to his office. After checking his emails, he worked with Don on the Cortez Motors campaign, and the timing of the ad rollouts. Late in the morning Teresa called Don’s office and said Jack had what sounded like a very important call. Jack looked at Don curiously, and Don motioned for Jack to use his phone. Jack grabbed the phone and took the call off Park. “Hello?”

“Jack? Oh, God, Jack, it’s getting impossible!” said Maria.

“Maria? What’s wrong?”

“Everything, Jack! The police keep questioning us and reporters are chasing us and women are suing us...” Maria went on in this vein for another minute until Jack told her to calm down.

“Maria, just calm down. I’ll come over and we can talk about it. I know you’re hurting, but we’ll work things out. Call the guards at the gate and let them know I’ll be coming over.”

“Please, Jack, I swear I’ll go crazy!”

“I’ll be over soon.” Jack hung up and looked over at Don. “I’m going to have to take the afternoon off.”

“What’s going on, Jack? Who was that?”

“It’s a friend, she’s having some problems.” Don raised an eyebrow at that, so Jack explained, “You’ve heard about the murders at the Beverly Hills Hotel?”

“The massacre? Sure, half the planet has heard about it. Why?”

“So, you know that one of the dead was State Senator Solana.” Don nodded. Jack sighed. “I knew the Solana family. I was a friend of Diego and Maria, his widow. That was her, and she’s having a meltdown. I need to go over and help the family.”

“Go, get out of here. Call if you need to be out for more than today. Take care of your friends.”

Jack thanked Don and left. On the way out, he stopped at Lisa’s office. “How was your night with Tina?” asked Lisa. They were alone, but the door was open, so they had to keep their voices low.

Jack smiled. “Very nice. I think she’s feeling a bit tired.”

Lisa giggled. “Yes, you have that ability.”

“Behave. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I have to go out for the afternoon. I’m spending the night with Teresa, but if she has any questions, give her a hand.”

“One of these days I’m going to want a night out with you. Better keep your schedule flexible, Jack!”

“I’ll plan on it. You girls are going to have to come up with a schedule for me!” he laughed.

Lisa came closer and lowered her voice to a whisper. “And a schedule for babies, Jack. I want one, too.”

Jack glanced at the open door, but nobody was near. He kept his voice low and answered, “Okay, but after Sharley, I promised Dakota. You can be next. Let them know to make sure the new home they are researching needs to be big enough for a large nursery.” Lisa nodded and smiled.

Finally, Jack stopped in the lobby and confirmed with Teresa that he would pick her up at seven. Surprisingly, Teresa gave him a very worried look. “I don’t know, Jack. My mother called a little while ago and told me I couldn’t go out.”

“You’ve been grounded?” he laughed.

“It’s not funny, Jack! I can’t afford to move out. I am barely able to pay for college as it is!”

“Okay, okay, I am not making light of the problem. Listen, don’t worry. You go home like normal and don’t say anything about the night. I’ll come over at seven and you just need to be ready. I’ll convince your parents you’ll be okay.”

“Jack...”

“Don’t worry, Teresa. I promise you I will sort it out when I get there. You just be ready. Talk to Lisa and ask her what to wear. You girls all went shopping together. Just trust me.”

“Okay, Jack, if you say so.”

Jack drove over to the gated community the Solana family lived in. Several vehicles were parked near the entrance. Two guards were there, one in the guard shack, and the other standing in the middle of the road, blocking anybody from just blowing through. Jack drove up, and when the guard asked his name, he waved him through after checking a list on a clipboard. Maria must have given the guards his name, Jack thought.

Another guard was standing on the sidewalk in front of the gate of Solana house. “Can I help you, sir?”

“My name’s Jack Winfield and I’m here to see the Solana family.”

“Yes, sir, go on in. They left word you were coming.” He spoke into a shoulder-mounted radio and motioned Jack up the driveway. Jack parked near the house behind a car with several antennas on it. When he walked to the front door, he realized it was an unmarked police car. He rang the doorbell.

A sullen-looking man in his early twenties opened the door. “Who are you?”

“Diego? My name is Jack Winfield. Your mother called me and asked me to come over?”

“Whatever you want, we don’t want it. Get lost!”

“Maybe you can ask your mother about that.”

“Whatever.” He closed the door in Jack’s face.

Jack half-smiled to himself. He realized that Diego the son must be hurting over the death of his father. He also knew, from his brief introduction, that the third Diego was the least intelligent of the Diegos. He was on the verge of ringing the bell again when the door opened.

“John, please come in,” said Maria. Even though she had been crying, and her eyes were puffy, she was still an elegant and beautiful woman. She was wearing black slacks and a white blouse and was holding a handful of tissues. “Come in. I am so sorry about that. This has been very difficult on the kids.”

“I understand. It’s all right.” Jack stepped inside and closed the door, and then hugged Maria. It wasn’t a sexual hug, but she felt warm and soft in his arms.

“There are a pair of detectives here,” Maria said.

“I saw the car outside.” Jack followed Maria into the living room. Valentina was sitting on the couch, Diego was sitting at the wet bar holding a glass of dark liquid, and another college-age man was in an armchair. That must be Julio, thought Jack. Two women in pantsuits were seated in armchairs next to the couch. Jack followed Maria to the couch and sat down next to her.

“This is Detective Velez and Detective Smith. They are here to tell us the latest on the hotel massacre,” said Maria.

“That’s not exactly accurate,” said Velez. Both women were cast from the same mold, late thirties, somewhat heavyset, and very world-weary. “Who are you?” she asked.

Jack smiled. “I’m Jack Winfield.” He reached across the coffee table and shook their hands in turn, and in the instant he did so, understood the two women instantly. They were trying to avoid showing it, but they were completely stumped by the massacre. They were facing a total lack of understanding about what had happened and realized that the biggest murder in Los Angeles in decades would probably go unsolved.

Neither Velez nor Smith could figure out what had happened. Eleven people were dead, and none of it made sense. Two men, one of them a state senator and the other a shady Miami businessman, had died late Saturday night; the coroner had given them a window of from ten in the evening until one in the morning. The father of the Marks family had died at most an hour later, but that wasn’t clear, and none of the three had a single mark on them. The deaths of the children and the women, on the other hand, were completely understandable. They had all been tortured and sexually abused, and their deaths were the direct result of an unspeakable level of violence done to them. Then, the last three men in the room, the ones covered in blood, had died, and again, there wasn’t a single mark on them. The coroner was hoping to find something in the toxicology reports but wasn’t holding out hope. His latest comments were simply that it was like, ‘somebody simply flipped a switch on them.’

Physical evidence was limited to video surveillance. The Marks family had arrived normally, and the desk clerk had come to work on her regular shift, but the others had no record of them ever making reservations or checking in. Despite arriving and going through the lobby and being seen by dozens of people, nobody could remember seeing them. A twelfth individual had arrived Sunday afternoon, but the videos showed nothing more than a suspected male, and he hadn’t been in the room for five minutes before leaving. He hadn’t been there long enough to do anything, and almost all the victims had died before he arrived in any case.

“What was your relationship to Mister Solana, Mister Winfield?” asked Smith.

I’m a friend of Diego’s and Maria’s,” answered Jack. Then he sighed and said, “I should say that I was a friend of Diego’s. It’s hard to think he’s gone.” Valentina started crying again, and Maria took her hand.

“How did you meet?”

“I work for Booker & Blakely. We’re an ad agency and I was talking to Diego about doing some advertising for his campaign. We got along well, and he introduced me to Maria and Valentina.” Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card holder and handed over one of his new business cards.

“And Diego and Julio?” asked Velez, indicating the two young men.”

“I’ve never met them until today. They are both students at UCLA, I believe.”

Smith looked at the card. “So, what does a director of strategic marketing do?”

“As little as possible,” said Jack with a smile. “It’s just a title. I’m a senior account exec with the agency, and titles can be wonderfully vague. I work on various ad campaigns.”

“Where were you Saturday night?” she continued.

“Are you asking if I have an alibi?”

“Do you need one?”

Jack shrugged. “I was with a friend in Phoenix for the weekend. We flew up Friday afternoon and flew back after lunch on Sunday.”

“Who’s the friend?”

He smiled. “Allow me a little discretion. You can check with the Arizona Biltmore. We were registered under my name.”

“We could require you to give us the name,” said Velez.

“Perhaps, but why? If the news is correct, the deaths occurred Saturday night and Sunday morning, and we were four hundred miles away. Obviously, we weren’t involved,” replied Jack. “So, since it wasn’t me, who was it?”

“It’s too early to say,” answered Velez.

“No, not really. You’re here on a fishing expedition. You already know none of the family members did it.”

“Us?” exclaimed Maria. The other members of the family all protested as well.

“Of course. Family is always the first to be suspected.” Jack turned to face the two young men. “By now the police have already traced your movements and locations this weekend, if you were at the library or at a party.” Then he turned back to Maria and her daughter. “You two were here, but they know that because they have checked surveillance videos at the gate and know you never drove away. So now they are trying to find somebody else.”